7 Ways To Start An Online Business, Without Quitting Your Day Job (Yet)
So many people dream of starting an online venture but are held back by fear, indecision, or any variety of other personal factors. Of course, there are plenty of reasons people are looking to spread their professional wings online. Whether you’re looking to escape the 9-to-5 grind or you just want to earn some money on the side, there are plenty of ways to turn your skills and interests into cold, hard cash online.No matter what industry you're hoping to break into, starting a business is hard work. The good news is, millions of people have taken the plunge with great success. With the right guidance, tools, and support, you can, too.
Here are some simple ideas you can use to start a real business, without quitting your day job:
1. Sell products
Selling tangible items online makes ordinary people millions of dollars per year. And getting started can be a lot easier than you think. If you need some guidance check out The Reseller Toolkit. From connecting with suppliers to marketing your wares, it walks you through every aspect of starting and running a profitable product sales business. You can start this as a side hustle, and grow it on your terms. Ideally it will grow successful enough to allow you to finally quit your day job and start living with the entrepreneurial freedom you've been longing for. Some popular ideas are bath and body products, supplies, and jewelry. You can also consider dropshipping, which will save you from having to store all of your inventory in-house.
2. Start a clothing line
Fashionistas, take note. Unique clothing is always in style. Use your sense of style to develop a clothing line you can share with the world. Creating and designing fashionable clothing is far easier than it used to be, thanks to the help of thousands of online printers and suppliers who are available to the public. You're just a few clicks away from your own fashion empire.Shopify is one of the best options out there for those just starting out. They're a complete website and hosting provider that helps with everything from store setup to checkout, and best of all, you don't need any design or coding experience whatsoever. If you've got a Wordpress site, they offer a handy Wordpress plugin to help.If you plan to start a tee shirt or other screen-printing clothing business, take advantage of their plugins that automatically link your store to apparel printers. Easy, peasy.
3. Sell your art online
Whether you’re a painter, photographer, or musician, there are plenty of ways for you to turn your latest masterpieces into a profitable, stable revenue stream. Sell prints, giclées, original prints or recordings, and more. The sky's the limit for creatives looking to make some cash on the side.
4. Become a service provider
Capitalize on your unique experience by helping others with their projects as a service provider. Graphic designers, copywriters, and developers can make some impressive hauls lending their talents out in exchange for a fee. You can sharpen your skills by taking some of the classes over at Creative Live. They've got plenty of topics to choose from, including some free ones. The more you know, the more you can charge. Plenty of people make thousands a month (sometimes a week) as a service provider. Why not you?Freelancers writers can secure gigs from job sourcing websites, like these. If you want to be a virtual assistant, this step by step post will show you how.
5. Teach an online course
Courses are all the rage these days, it seems like everyone's got one. That's because they're easy to put together and are usually highly profitable. All you need to do is channel your inner-teacher and put together a guide, video walkthrough, podcast, or webinar sharing your expertise on a particular topic, then, offer it for sale on your website.
6. Flip your finds
If you're a love hitting up thrift stores, estate sales, and garage sales, then opening up an online boutique to sell your treasures would make a great business venture for you. In this guide, I share how I sourced my products and made big money online, including how a $1 investment netted me thousands of dollars.
7. Publish your own book
It doesn’t matter if it’s an educational guide for your niche, a novel, a special report, or even a coffee table book, there are now plenty of options for successfully self-publishing your own work. And, you won't need spend months waiting to see if your pitch was accepted by a traditional publishing house, only to hand over fist-fulls of profits to them in the end. If you think it will sell, be your own publisher.The great news is, you can get started with any of these ideas right now. That includes getting your website up and running often within a matter of a few hours (and, on the cheap!). Then all that's left to do is figure out what you want to to sell and add it to your e-commerce store. How very simple.Need inspiration? Check out these amazing success stories.Once you've got your website set up, you'll need some customers. This article offers 39 simple ways to find lots of new clients, fast.That's it, seven ideas to help you escape the daily grind and create a life and business you love. Want more? Read on to learn more about how to start and scale these 7 online business ideas, right here.
If you could start any business online, what would it be and why? Let us know in the comments.